How to Make an ARF Trooper

The Star Wars universe seems to perpetually expand as Lucasfilm continues to add series, characters and concepts onto George Lucas' original vision. One of the more recent character concepts is the Advanced Recon Force trooper. ARF troopers were tasked with scouting out enemy positions on a battlefield and sometimes used the lightweight AT-RT walkers in that role, according to the movie "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." Like all Republic stormtroopers, ARF troopers wore the standard 18-piece body armor but were distinguished by a specialized helmet, which you can re-create with the right materials.

Things You'll Need

• Motocross helmet
• Painter's mask
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Velcro tabs
• Masking tape
• White spray paint
• Cardboard
• Black jumpsuit
• Black gloves
• Black boots

Instructions

The ARF Helmet

1. Attach Velcro tabs to the chin of a full-face motocross helmet, which you can find at sporting goods or specialty stores and online. The kind with a hat-like brim at the top of the visor is best, as the ARF troopers have a large light shield around the eye slits of the helmet.

2. Attach Velcro tabs inside a plastic painter's mask, which you can get at a hardware store. Look for one with side-mounted filter capsules. Attach the mask to the chin of the motocross helmet.

3. Cut out a piece of cardboard to modify the helmet's face. Trim the bottom of the cardboard to fit in front of the bottom of the motocross visor and behind the painter's mask. Trim the top of the cardboard to outline the bottom of a pair of goggles.

4. Add Velcro tabs to the back of the cardboard insert and to the helmet visor. The insert should fit just between the bottom lip of the helmet and visor, behind the painter's mask. It should create the impression of a pair of goggle-shaped eye slits.

5. Cut two triangular inserts, one for each side, that will extend at an angle from the front edge of the helmet's brim to the main portion of the helmet beside the eye slits. Leave small tabs, about 1/2-inch square, on the edges that will meet the helmet and brim so you can attach everything with Velcro. The end result should look like a squarish sun shade over the eye slits of the helmet.

6. Mask the exposed section of the visor with masking tape, and spray paint your ARF trooper helmet glossy white. Apply several coats of paint by spraying lightly and evenly and waiting an hour in between coats.

Stormtrooper Armor

1. Wrap a sheet of thin cardboard around your chest. Have an assistant help you by marking the shape of your chest on the cardboard. Mark holes for the arms and the neck, leaving a strap-like portion to go over the shoulders. Create two pieces, one for your front and one for your back.

2. Attach Velcro tabs on the inside edges of the front chest piece and the outside edges of the back chest piece. Put on the chest pieces by attaching them at the Velcro points.

3. Wrap a piece of thin cardboard around your abdomen. Have your assistant mark where the cardboard meets itself at your back. Cut out the cardboard and apply Velcro tabs at the edges. Attach the abdominal armor at the Velcro points.

4. Create the codpiece by cutting out a piece of cardboard in a roughly triangular shape that covers your front. Attach Velcro tabs to the back of the cardboard and to the black jumpsuit. Connect the codpiece to the jumpsuit at the Velcro points.

5. Create the arm and leg armor using the same method: Wrap thin cardboard around your limb, mark where the edges meet, then cut out the cardboard. Attach Velcro tabs to the edges. Repeat this process for both upper arms, lower arms, upper legs and lower legs. Attach the armor by connecting it at all the Velcro points.

6. Cut out six 6-by-6-inch squares of cardboard. Attach Velcro tabs to the backs of each one, as well as to the shoulders of the jumpsuit, the backs of the black gloves and the tops of the black boots. Put one square of cardboard on each shoulder, on each glove and on each boot.

7. Spray paint all your cardboard armor pieces white. When they are dry, put them on again over the black jumpsuit, gloves and boots. Put on your helmet to complete the ARF trooper.

Tips & Warnings

• Depending on the exact design of the painter's mask you used, you may want to remove the filter canisters and remount them using Velcro farther back on the bottom side of the helmet.

References

• "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (movie); Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching, et al; 2008
• StarWars.com: Databank -- Stormtrooper Armor

Resources

• Wookieepedia; Advanced Recon Force troopers